This invention relates to fluid dispensers in general, and more particularly to an improved dispensing unit retainer for permanently retaining a top-mounted dispensing unit such as a pump, valve, or the like.
Fluid product dispensers are frequently fitted with fluid dispensing units. The term "dispensing unit" as used herein means a pump, valve, or any type of device for dispensing product from a container. One type of pump for which several embodiments of the present invention are particularly well adapted is a modular pump, which is a self-contained structure that may be assembled and shipped separately from the rest of the dispenser.
Many packages for drugs and other food products use tamper-proof seals to prevent the introduction of foreign substances into the product during storage, display, or any other time before purchase by the consumer. However, once the container is open, there is little protection against tampering or contamination. There is a need for a container that cannot be tampered with at any time without destroying the container and its contents. Such a container is needed for dispensive medications, as well as liquid food.
Currently available dispensers are formed from containers, typically glass or plastic bottles, having a conventional pump dispenser fitted in a dispensing unit retainer such as a threaded cap or similar closure member. FIG. 4 of my prior U.S. Pat No. 4,457,455 discloses the combination of a non-vented pump, which may be of the nature disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,211,346 or 4,274,560, and a screw threaded cap. In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,242 the combination of a pre-pressurized pump and a screw-threaded container cap is used to close the end of the container. Such containers are susceptible to tampering because the threaded cap or dispensing unit is readily removable. Although some designs for hermetically sealed containers provide some of the desired tamper-proof characteristics, such as initially holding the product in a separate protected or hermetically sealed collapsible compartment as is disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,008,830, 4,457,454, 4,457,455 and 4,696,415, these pumps are expensive to manufacture and equipment for the efficient mass production of such containers is not currently available.
Another drawback of the threaded-cap type of container is that the dispensing unit is typically mounted in the cap from the underside of the cap. In addition to complicating assembly, during operation of the dispensing unit, the user presses inwardly on the dispensing unit; the operating force acts in a direction tending to dislodge the dispensing unit from the cap.
Yet another shortcoming of conventional dispensers is that they are susceptible to accidental discharge or discharge by children with potentially harmful results. My prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,848,778 and 4,324,351 disclose features to prevent accidental discharge and operation by children. Both patents disclose a dispenser actuator that swivels on the stem of the dispensing unit between a position in which the dispensing unit can be operated and a position in which it cannot. U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,778 also discloses a locking tab that engages the actuator when it is in the non-operating position; the locking tab must be disabled before the actuator can be rotated to the operating position. The patent also discloses a breakaway tab that must be removed before the locking tab can be disabled.
Finally, the discharge orifice of conventional dispensing unit actuators are susceptible to clogging when some of the discharged product that remains in the fluid passages leading to the discharge orifice dries in the orifice from exposure to ambient air.
Thus, there is a need for a dispensing unit retainer that can be fitted with a dispensing unit and can be joined with a container to make a more completely tamper-proof dispensing container, which is more easily assembled to the container than heretofore possible, which renders the container resistant to accidental discharge or discharge by a child, and which inhibits clogging of the actuator discharge orifice by dried product.